Bad Machine

Bad Machine is an interactive text adventure, much like All Roads which we saw last week. Upon opening and exploring the Bad Machine world, we see some immediate and confounding differences between the two. First off, this one puts you into the mind of a robot that is supposed to be doing some kind of work, but has instead become a 'Bad Machine,' a robot that has become self-aware. The status readout that the game delivers the player about his character reads 'Compliance 0.00%' which I was excited about. It's symbolic, both because the character is not doing its job, and the player is completely ignorant to any means of compliance.

I liked how Bad Machine twists the traditional text-based RPG. This is a format that was the forerunner to games like WOW and Fallout and Mass Effect—a sort of textual maze that required the player to both translate a text-only interface into the perception of an imagined three-dimensional world, and be familiar with necessary commands in order to manipulate this imagined environment accurately.

Bad Machine uses this ancient interface to its advantage, producing a believable, code-like appearance that adds to the realism of the work rather than detracting from it. The player must adjust his character's internal systems to correct errors and avoid detection. He must 'scan' the environment instead of looking around. He can retrieve information about other units, items, and boundaries present in the environment. We can index other machines and see their serial numbers, proposed actions, and intent. We even get information about the parts that make up their bodies. We can even exchange our parts for theirs.

What is most interesting, however, is the cohesive syntax that the Bad Machine interface uses. Phrases like "good machine" and "bad machine" and "compliance" permeate the work. Everything comes down to whether or not these working robots are doing their tasks without question; ironically, Bad Machine does not allow the player to pretend to do work, or even describe the task that the character is supposed to be doing. This means that there is no tricking the Drones that come searching for you, and beyond that, it means that this whole game is about searching for purpose and meaning. The concept itself plays with an existential thematic that provides a fantastic foundation for this work.

Supposedly, there are ways to both interfere with the goings-on of the factory the game is set in, though I am not sure how to do any of that. Supposedly it is possible to hunt down the 'queen' robot, kill her and become the directing authority of the factory, too. But I haven't pulled that off either. I did get myself to one ending though, but only with the help of a walkthrough attached to hint forums.

I would suggest checking this out for yourselves, too, if you intend to play through this some more:

It proved very helpful to me.

Another tool that might not have appeared useful at first is the help command. Typing 'help' will bring you to a list of menus that identify the more confusing commands needed to interface with bad machine, i.e. a list of binary strings that make up the syntax of language that the machines use. 000, for instance is 'NO' and 001 is 'YES.'

We also are introduced to a bunch system commands that seem to effect the game, but only behind the scenes. System Aware_Level (Low Medium High) is an example. System Entry_Ping (True False) is another. We will discuss these in greater detail in class though. For now, I'm signing off.

Update on Project 2

Well, I just finished recording the score for my flash piece yesterday evening. It was an enjoyable experience to say the least. The track is four minutes long—and I have a feeling the movie won't be that long itself, but I can always add time to scene-cuts and what not. My goal at this point is to integrate the music into the video seamlessly. I want different segments of the video to match up to different parts of the music. If I get the buttons working, then that will be sort of a mute point because people will be switching between segments at their own volition, but if that doesn't work then it will be timed up nicely.

I also learned something interesting: splitting the flash between scenes is apparently a bad idea. Though the ability to create different scenes has been around for a while, no one really uses them. From what I've gathered in forums and random how-to articles on the web, they seem to complicate the whole process, and I'm not looking to make anything more complicated than it is already. Therefore, I've started moving my second scene into my first scene. So much for organization!

I also have an idea for how to make the background a passing road. I think I'm going to find or take a relatively large picture of pavement with double-yellow lines and what not, then edit it in photoshop, create a patchwork image where the ends will match up perfectly. Then I'll have to figure out how to loop that running across the background. We'll see how it goes.

That's where I am so far; now on to my presentation.

Project 2

Here's a preview of what I've been doing all week.
There's not much of a map that I'm going to list here, mainly because this isn't a jump-around-piece like my hypertext was.

This is going to be an interactive flash-poetry piece. Interactive in the sense that I am *trying* to make buttons that will switch between different poems inside different scenes.

The poems themselves will be animated, at least if I *can* animate them. It has taken me this whole week to learn the basic programming I need for actionscript 3.0. And by learn, I really mean copy, paste, and hope the stuff works.

I used to know actionscript 2.0, but 3.0 is like a whole new language, and while it apparently allows for much more complex programming, it also makes simple things much more complex as well.

To be completely honest, I don't know if I can do too much with this; it's too intricate. I spent three months learning Flash basics in high school, and I still only got a very basic grasp on the program. Now, with the language that drives the actions changed so completely, it's like I'm jumping out of a plain without a parachute.


HOWEVER! I did get Flash to link the two scenes that I have managed to write. Though the script linking them is supposed to be a button-script, and the button itself doesn't work, the first scene does play into the second.


I suppose that what I'm getting at is this: DAMN this is hard. Thank god it runs!

at any rate, check it out, see what you can see, and although it's short, I hope you can see where I'm going with it—assuming I can go further.



I'll post the vid again once I work the kinks in this preview out.

Assignment #2 Prewriting

Okay, for this assignment, I really do need to prewrite. Last time, I knew what I was doing before I knew it. This time, I only have a vague idea.

Here's what I know:

1. I want to go in the opposite direction I went last time; I want to write a visually interactive piece, not a text-based one.
2. I want to create a Flash piece (Using Adobe Flash CS4).
3. I want to input my own original graphics, sounds, and music.

I have thought about making an interactive flash movie, something distinctively plot-based. I also considered creating a flash-based application. More specifically, a playable graphic guitar. This is the route I think I will take, as long as Dr. Chandler approves. I would record the sounds produced on each fret of a portion of the guitar's neck, hopefully doing each one in several different tones. Then, I could also add a window for guitar tabs to provide the user with a resource for making music with the application. This device itself would function like a flash soundboard.

I need to be sure that I have the appropriate tools to attempt this project, and I also need to look up some tutorials as well.

The other possible problem is that only one note can be hit at one time. To rectify this, I will try to program a keyboard interface that will allow the user to strike multiple notes at the same time.

I would also like to, if there is enough time, create a keyboard version as well.

As far as movement goes, strings will vibrate, and keys will push. As far as a literary reading goes, I'm not sure what to do about that. My creation would have a definite, seamless sense of thematic visually; I don't know if that's enough though. This is simply the thought I've been playing with most, and if it doesn't work for the assignment then I'll figure something else out.